The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH)Posted 3 years ago under
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A woman named Elizabeth Whelan founded ACSH, the American Council on Science and Health, in 1978, when she was a public health scientist at Harvard crusading against what she called “junk science.” Whelan and her business partner Dr. Stare received most of their funding from the food and tobacco industries. Before launching ACSH, Elizabeth Whelan wrote books promoting chemicals and additives in food, and the book jacket cover to “Panic in the Pantry” said, “Eat your additives, they’re good for you.” The book even promoted sugar to support the sugar industry. By the early 1980s, ACSH’s donors included Dow, Monsanto, Mobil Foundation, Chevron and Bethlehem Steel. In 1984, ACSH helped Georgia-Pacific, a leading formaldehyde maker, get a court ruling overturned that would have banned formaldehyde insulation. Much like the AMA, the American Medical Association, ACSH hires known criminals to “run the show.” In a 1992 memo, Whelan called ACSH “the great defender of petrochemical companies.” The current executive director and acting president of ACSH, Dr. Gilbert Ross, had his license to practice medicine revoked in 1995 for personal misconduct and was sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison and was ordered to pay restitution for scheming and defrauding New York’s Medicaid program. After Ross’s release from prison, he was hired by Elizabeth Whelan, but did not regain his medical license until 2004. (1) Elizabeth Whelan passed away in 2014, but her “junk science” council reigns on. In fact, Nicolas Martin, a former administrative director for ACSH back in 1988, after he left ACSH – – dubbed Whelan the “Junk Food Queen” for her defense of companies who make products with low (or no) nutritional value.

ACSH takes the position that “junk science” promotes unnecessary fear among the population that too many ingredients in foods are implicated as cancer-causing agents, also known as carcinogens, mutagens, pathogens, pesticides, synthetic preservatives and chemical additives. Although one in every three Americans will get cancer in their lifetime and half will not survive it, ACSH moves to discredit any concerns about the food industry and food products that have been proven as such by the very science they claim to be protecting. Actual “junk science” is now understood to be food that is processed to be addictive to humans, like monosodium glutamate, extremely powerful synthetic sweeteners (chemicals), and hydrolyzed soy proteins (genetically modified). Junk science refers to the chemical and processed food industry mixing synthetic ingredients to make food habitual and health damaging, thus fueling the lucrative allopathic medical field and the cancer industrial complex of America. Australia and the United States rank as two of the top six countries in the world that suffer the most from junk science addiction and cancer, and the statistics prove it. (2)

From Dr. Henry Miller (4) to Jon Entine (5) and from Dr. Gilbert Ross (7) to the “Food Czar” Michael Taylor (6), the list of industry hacks and cons is long, but very important to the mission of ACHS, which is to instill common sense and faith in processed food and genetically modified organisms in food. Though ACSH is a non-profit organization, insider reports tell a different story, where ASCH publish booklets and propaganda promoting health-damaging processed sugar (like Hershey Company products) and chemical pesticides for lawn care while trading such work contingent on donations made to ACSH. They receive funding from Syngenta to promote atrazine and “chemophobia,” which, according to Whelan is the strange condition where humans have an unwarranted fear of getting cancer from chemicals. There is a laundry list of corporate “donors” that help ACSH publicize their auspicious agenda of promoting chemical agriculture to help feed the world. This is more of promoting junk science than it is debunking it, but ACSH is firm in their stance of promoting anti-paranoia about food chemicals (basically setting up a straw man and knocking him down).

The American Council on Science and Health is a group of scientists and journalists that report findings of studies done by the companies that manufacture pesticides and the philosophies shared by big business with financial interests at stake in the name of Biotechnology. Financial documents published by Mother Jones show ACSH relies heavily on funding from corporations that shape the GMO conversations that surround unanswered questions and legitimate concerns. (1) True science-based research does not rely on industry-funded studies because they are often biased, corrupted and influenced by money rather than honest results. ACSH’s donors range from soda makers and junk food sellers like McDonald’s to tobacco corporations, and from the most powerful pharma corporations like Bristol Myers Squibb to agri-tech monsters like Bayer Cropscience and Syngenta. Pepsi and Monsanto of course donate to the ACSH “mission” of informing the public that all junk food is good for you as well as consuming chemical-laden pesticides. These are the companies that drum up the “science-based facts” that ACSH promotes as peer-reviewed and as the only research they can rely upon.

ACSH claims that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the Center for Science in the Public Interest both use “junk science” when they issue warnings about dangerous pesticides, pharmaceuticals and chemicals that endanger certain species in the environment, whether those species are bees, chickens, cows or even humans. Health enthusiasts believe it is the ACSH agenda to “limit or dismantle many technological achievements that contribute to consumer choice and good health.” ACSH even pushes diet foods that contain artificial sweeteners that have been implicated as cancer-causing, carcinogenic agents, like Aspartame. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader once called ACSH, “a consumer front organization for its business backers.”

ACSH members lead the attack on Dr. Oz after Roundup’s glyphosate (Monsanto’s #1 herbicide) cancer danger exposed on his show

In April of 2015, a group of doctors published a letter calling on Columbia University to remove Dr. Mehmet Oz from the faculty of its College of Physicians and Surgeons, accusing Oz of “disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine,” “baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops,” and “an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.” Signers on the letter included Dr. Gilbert Ross and Henry I. Miller, a former ACSH board member and leading spokesman for opposing GMO labeling. The smear campaign waged against Dr. Oz for presenting the WHO’s (World Health Organiziation) findings that Roundup most likely causes cancer became an internet viral phenomenon and the whole campaign was denounced. Dr. Oz lost no credibility, in fact, health enthusiasts were so impressed with his courage and candor that the show has gained popularity since. ACSH has proven time and time again they will challenge any science and research findings that question the safety of anything GMO in order to protect their backers.

ACSH may be solely a propaganda machine for Biotech and Big Food. Through their own actions they have discredited their own theories and have shown no scientific evidence that any theories they promote have ever been proven. (8) In fact, most of their theories have been disproven by independent, reliable research that has no “skin in the game.”